Tech

Now You Can Shift the Perspective of Your Lytro Photos

Lytro made a name for itself with its shoot-first-focus-later photos, captured by a new kind of photography that captures an entire "light field" of a scene. Now, Lytro is going beyond just refocusing, enabling users to shift the perspective of their photos as well as add filters.

Since the lens of the Lytro camera is quite large, and it captures light-direction data, it's possible to slightly shift the perspective of any light-field image. First, the viewer needs to put the photo "all in focus" — another feature that comes with the software update — essentially flattening the image, focus-wise. You do that by clicking and holding (or, on a touch screen, pressing and holding), and then you can just move your mouse (or finger) to shift perspective.

The effect is slight, but extremely effective. In a demo, Lytro reps showed me perspective shift on various kinds of photos — from nature scenes to faces to still lifes — and the effect made each one seem more immersive and personal. Even more than refocusing, perspective shift epitomizes the entire idea of "living pictures."

You can try out the effect for yourself in the Lytro pic below. To use perspective shift, click and hold, then move your mouse.

Perspective shift will be available via an update to the Lytro software starting Dec. 4. It'll work on all Lytro photos — even ones users have already taken. Whoever's sharing the photo must first enable perspective shift for viewers to be able to use it, however, and the feature is a little awkward to use on a touch screen. But just as before, the embeds work in both Facebook and Twitter streams.

The software update also lets users add filters to their photos. But these aren't the same sepia or high-contrast tones that made Instagram a hit — Lytro has crafted filters that specifically take advantage of the light-field data in the photo.

For example, one filter lets you put the foreground in color and the background in black and white, or vice versa — centering the color saturation of the image around the focus point (see the pic below for an example). Another exaggerates the blur in out-of-focus parts of the pic, making the "reveal" effect more dramatic.

Lytro says the new tricks are all part of a long list of features and abilities of unlocking the full potential of the light field. Also on the to-do list: 3D photos, video and Matrix-style "bullet time" effects, which would take the perspective-shift idea to the extreme.

As for any new hardware, Lytro is staying mum. Obviously not wanting to "Osborne" its first-generation product, the company is focused on software features at the moment. Nonetheless, the main criticism of the camera has been its low resolution, which is about a megapixel.

How do you like the new Lytro features, and what other ones would you like to see? Share your thoughts in the comments.

What's Hot

More in Tech

What's New

What's Rising

What's Hot

Mashable
is a leading source for news, information and resources for the Connected Generation. Mashable reports on the importance of digital innovation and how it empowers and inspires people around the world. Mashable's record 42 million unique visitors worldwide and 21 million social media followers are one of the most influential and engaged online communities. Founded in 2005, Mashable is headquartered in New York City with an office in San Francisco.